I pray this update finds all of you well and chasing after Him! It amazes me how we can chase after Him, but no matter how hard we chase Him He is chasing us harder. If you think about that for very long it kind of makes you a bit teary eyed. Two of the early morning sets I help with have been focused on Song of Solomon, I’m so loving it! I’ve been wanting a deeper revelation and understanding of this book for a while and nothing does that quite like praying and singing it. We just have such a great time singing, declaring and praying over the Bride every week. This week one of the things that we focused on was declaring that it is time for the Bride to stop focusing on the fact that she is “dark but lovely” and focus instead on how He sees her. We must begin to see ourselves as the Bride that He looks at and says “turn your eyes away from Me, for they have overcome Me”, then we will step out and be the mature Bride who joyfully leaps on the mountains with Him. Granted, I’m not saying that we are sinless or should never take time to repent etc., but if we only focus on our sin or the past He rescued us from we will never move forward to who He has called us to be. Praise God that He saved us and set us free, so be set free! I desperately want to be the Bride I have been called to be.
On a slightly different note, I want to share a bit about the Temple Mount. It says in Acts that 3,000 were saved and baptized all at once on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ death. In Jerusalem there are very few areas where Peter could have gathered that kind of a crowd, and even fewer places where that many could have been baptized in a relatively short amount of time. It is thought that perhaps the Southern Steps leading up to the Temple Mount is where Peter stood and preached for the first time. Since they were in the middle of a feast time there would have been large numbers of people coming to the Temple, plus amongst the steps are Mikvaot (places for the people to ceremonially bathe before entering the Temple). So it would have been the perfect spot for that many people to hear the message and then be baptized. Acts 2:46-47 says “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple…having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily”, which makes it seem even more likely that Peter was speaking somewhere near the temple. We have been praying for a fresh or new outpouring in the same location. Interestingly enough, on Monday (we were praying several days later) of last week Benny Hinn took 800 people to the Southern Steps and had them face the wall and pray in tongues for quite some time. Think maybe God is saying something?? Anyway, we had a great time praying together for this, and I am looking forward to the day when we see the physical seeds of this.
I also believe that a lot of what has motivated the Muslims over the years has been jealousy. This week I just really could feel that when I was around them. It reminded me of when my brothers were a lot younger; no matter what my older brother said he wanted to do, my younger brother demanded that he get the same thing. This became especially annoying to my older brother when it came to seating in the car. No matter which seat he said he wanted my little brother would pitch a fit if he didn’t get the same seat. Eventually my older brother was able to manipulate this to his favor by saying he wanted the opposite of what he really wanted. It’s a bit twisted with these two people groups since technically Ishmael was Abraham’s oldest, but Isaac received the blessings of the first born. I believe that there have been seeds of jealousy ever since. It’s not so much that Muslims deep down hate the Jews, they are just craving to have the same blessings and love that has been promised to Israel. Therefore, no matter what is said to belong to Israel, the Muslims try to find a way to get it for themselves. This revelation has given me such compassion for them which makes it hard to be angry with them. I believe they have felt a huge amount of rejection because of all of this, but God has room for them too! It says He wishes that none would perish. There is no way to create lasting peace between these two people groups until both are made whole in Jesus. This is made so obvious when you are around Muslim believers who have let go of their anger and found that God has more than enough love and blessings to go around! It is so wonderful to see this restoration, we must pray for the completion of it!!!
Picture #1 – painting my “prophetic” rain boots, the rain is coming!
~Lydia
Yes!...She was a poet!...
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